#after seeing all the work that goes into marketing for a *local nonprofit*

[packernet]

New Post has been published on https://www.packernet.com/blog/2023/12/19/how-the-packers-got-their-name-and-community-ownership-structure/

How the Packers Got Their Name and Community Ownership Structure?

Delving into the history behind the Green Bay Packers’ odd name origin and their enduring status as the only publicly owned nonprofit sports franchise.

With a name echoing humble beginnings rather than intimidation, the Green Bay Packers have nonetheless cultivated one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sports. The expansive community of die hard “cheeseheads” lives and breathes the green and gold, flocking to historic Lambeau Field through biting winters to create a cherished football atmosphere fueled by Midwestern grit.

Generations have passed down an allegiance to the small-market franchise that goes far beyond sports fandom. Devotees young and old stay glued to every Packers game broadcast whether in the stands or participating through sportsbooks. From the smallest of screens at home to local taverns, they always pack a punch with huge support. Many sportsbooks like monstercasino have the best odds for Packers all the time. This deep-rooted connection stems in part from Green Bay’s unique nonprofit ownership model, allowing Wisconsinites to literally buy into their beloved Packers.

With citizen shareholders empowering the franchise’s success, the team strives to make “owners” proud by showcasing the blue-collar work ethic ingrained in Packers culture. For the green and gold faithful, game days represent a continuation of that communal tradition.

Have you ever wondered why Wisconsin’s beloved NFL squad is named the “Packers”? Or what makes their ownership set-up so unique across professional sports? Well, let’s dive into the origin stories that shaped the franchise we know as the Green Bay Packers.

See, unlike many nicknames that sound fierce or impressive, “Packers” doesn’t exactly scream domination. Heck, it makes it seem like the players’ main duties involve box packing! So why adopt a humble handle like that to represent your professional football outfit?

To solve this little mystery, we need to hop in the way-back machine to 1919 when Curly Lambeau founded the squad. The young Lambeau worked as a shipping clerk for a company called Indian Packing. When he sought to start a team, Curly asked his employers for money to buy equipment and permission to use their field for games.

Indian Packing saves the day

Indian Packing agreed to shell out $500 to give the squad its start (a tidy sum for the times!). To show thanks for the support, Curly named his new team the Packers in honor of the company.

Soon after, Indian Packing got bought out by a firm named Acme Meat Packing. For a few years in the 1920s, Curly’s crew actually sported “Acme Packers” jerseys when playing in the fledgling pro league that would later become the NFL.

But by the 1940s, Acme Packing had gone out of business. Nonetheless, the Packers nickname stuck. And coincidentally enough, the next few decades marked the glory days of Lombardi’s championships that firmly cemented Green Bay’s identity. So Curly’s random choice became legendary!

Now let’s fast-forward to the franchise’s unique ownership situation. In a sports landscape dominated by individual billionaires or massive corporations running the show, Green Bay stands nearly alone as a publicly-owned nonprofit.

Rather than a Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft-type overseeing operations, the Packers are community property. More than 500,000 cheesehead investors own shares of the team, making Green Bay the only public sports franchise on U.S. stock markets.

The Packers incorporated way back in 1923 as the Green Bay Football Corporation before adopting the current Packers name in 1935. To ensure wide community representation, no single shareholder can hold more than 200,000 shares of the nonprofit.

Thanks to this structure, the Packers remain tied to the identity and enthusiasm of their small-town home. Board members are elected each year to oversee the club’s big picture vision and hire execs to handle day-to-day.

Pride in ownership

While no shareholder receives dividends or a cut of profits, the arrangement allows Green Bay fans to take great pride in literally owning their beloved football squad. The Packers devote excess revenues back into the franchise to field consistently competitive teams year after year.

This rare setup also ensures the team can never get bought out and relocated for financial motives. That loyalty and continuity with their Green Bay roots fosters an ultra-passionate environment at the historic Lambeau Field. Cheeseheads take the mission of shielding their publicly-owned asset as seriously as defending a block of Titletown cheddar!

So there you have it – a quick backstory on why the Packers got their peculiar name and how civic duty binds the franchise to its community. Looking ahead, expect Green Bay’s grassroots identity to endure for generations. The “Football Corporation” now proudly serves shareholders from every corner of Packer Nation, not any far-flung financial interests.

Pretty cool that supporting the green and gold means supporting each other, both metaphorically and literally. That loyal spirit of togetherness makes game days at Lambeau Field so special for players and fans alike. Go Pack Go!

[yelloskello]

Saw a post on twitter talkin abt how reviews 4 detective pikachu keep saying it sucks cause u have to have knowledge of the pokemon franchise for it (which is stupid, but thats another can of worms) and comparing it to avengers endgame's 20 movie homework assignment - which isnt hyperbole. And i was thinking of all the folks who are like 'stop crying why dont you understand how sequels work'. And it got me musing on what marvel and disney have done here to basically guarantee that they not only garner huge profits from their new movies, but that they continue to garner huge profits on basically every mcu movie theyve made since 2008.

Like. MCU movies whether i like it or not are a huge part of being... social, basically. I dont give a shit about them, but i also have almost no friends and dont give a shit about communicating with people in a general sense. But every time a new marvel movie comes out, its fuckin all people talk about. It permeates everything. Ive seen the societal pressure to continue seeing these movies even if you dont care about them, *just* so you can be part of everyday conversation for a good few months. People RUN to see the movie as soon as humanly possible because people want to avoid spoilers so desperately they completely isolate themselves from the world. And, yeah, you can apply this to literally any movie in a popular franchise or any standalone heavy hitter - what sets mcu apart is that 20 movie homework assignment.

In looking up what movies are essential to watch before endgame, the absolute shortest list i could find was 8, and that was like, bare bones. Watching those 8 movies, if youre a newbie to the franchise, you still wouldnt know who the fuck most of the heroes popping up are or why the fuck theyre there. (I have general knowledge of marvel, but i never saw ant man, so even being marginally aware of the hero when i saw civil war and he popped up, i was like 'what the fuck, whyd they kidnap celebrity paul rudd?') In order to fully understand who everybody is, i'd say you have to watch at least the first movie of every individual hero's movie line. In order to have perspective on the inner workings of characters and what has happened to them so you can see where theyre coming from, youd have to watch *all* of it. Which, i mean, if people wanna do that, u do u booboo. Some people are in love with this shit. Some people wanna be able to, like, be part of greater society and talk to their friends. I get it. Youre not gonna be able to keep up with conversation as well if you dont know who a third of the characters even are. If your friends are big fans, you better be able to talk shop, too.

What im musing on is that, like, theres no way this wasnt fully intentional. Theres no way that disney and marvel arent aware of the social influence their franchise has, and no way they werent aware of how it would be from the beginning, just by watching social trends when huge movies come out. I mean, thats what your marketing team is there for, yknow. Its literally their job. The entire mcu line was carefully crafted to make sure youre not just giving money to their new movies, but to all their old movies, since its required watching and youll experience some level of social isolation if you dont. Yeah, other franchises have done this stuff too, having multiple sequals or breaking up their sequals into several parts to make more money. But - and i might be wrong, if theres another quite this huge, im just not remembering - not to the extent the mcu has. Not *20 fucking movies*, spanning several different storylines with their own sequels that are only intermingled juuuuust enough to be important. Imagine if all the disney princess movies were intermingled. Imagine if, in order to watch moana, you had to watch everything from, oh, little mermaid on, to understand whats going on.

And then, like the big bright maraschino cherry on top, if you complain about it being inaccessible, you get social backlash. Youre socially isolated and out of the popular loop if you dont see it, but if you take issue with everything you have to do just to get there, youre chastised by your peers. The only way to win is to give marvel lots of money, and thats entirely intentional on their part.

And yes, i know, ppl can pirate movies or read summaries. I am one of the ppl who basically live by doing that, so ofc i know. But i think we can all agree that reading summaries is absolutely not the same as seeing the movie first hand, leaves out a ton of details, and gives you none of the emotional impact of the situation, so youre still socially stunted - and theres absolutely a societal trend to some people to just experience the whole thing because it just feels right. Basically as a ritual. (See: people rewatching the LOTR trilogy before going to see the hobbit movies, just to hype themselves up and turn seeing the movie into a much bigger personal event, as ONE example among mmmaaannnyyy.) And pirating? Tons of folks are vehemently morally opposed to that. (I am not, but like, doesnt mean there aint a significant number of ppl who are.)

Its clever. And also kinda horrifying, in a 'capitalism is highly manipulative and insidious' kinda way.

Im 100% sure this musing is not new or groundbreaking in any way, shape, or form, and that tons of people have been well aware of it for ages. Its just interesting to think about.

[davewakeman]

Talking Tickets: 17 April 2020--Refunds! Restarts! Support! And, More!

Hey! 

Thanks for being here again this week. If you are enjoying this newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to sign up by visiting this link.

How is everyone holding up out there?

If you need someone to chat with, let me know. I’m here for you if you need a proper chat as my friend, Cat, would say.

I made a typing error about the strategy webinar. It is going on this coming Tuesday.

Have a few minutes and want to grab a drink? We may not be able to have a drink in person just yet, but we can have a virtual happy hour. Join me and Ken Troupe for what is becoming a Friday tradition for happy hour with sports business folks at 5 PM EDT.

If you are interested, we’ve got a nice Slack community with folks from around the world and all areas of the industry, exchanging ideas, connecting, and thinking about the future of their businesses.

I’ll share a bunch of links to resources and other places to connect in the newsletter.

Hopefully, I’m able to strike a proper balance for all of you…between, “Wow! This is nuts!” and “We will get through this.”

To the tickets!

————————————————————————————————————

1. When will events return? No one knows but we are learning more:

Dr. Zeke Emmamuel says he doesn’t see large scale events coming back until the fall of 2021.

Shane Harmon, CEO of Sky Stadium in New Zealand shared some interesting information from his government on when restrictions might start to be loosened and things can begin to normalize a little. Patron Base also put together a nice resource guide for their customers that y’all may find useful.

In Europe, the UK is preparing for 3 additional weeks of stay-at-home orders, pushing the opening of events back a bit further.

In the US, we still have no clear strategy for what reopening will look like, what we should expect, and how we will start to regain any sense of normalcy.

We do have a reopening panel and we do have a desire to reopen events, but, again, unfortunately, no clear direction.

I think we all have to try and take a balanced approach to our expectations here. First, we have the economic factor and that’s impacting all of us here immensely. Second, we have to deal with the safety concerns of the population and recognize that liability will drive a lot of the decision making process. Finally, never lose sight of the impact of fear and emotionally driven decision making on mass society. As quickly as people are gung ho to get back to ballparks, if an outbreak happens that was accelerated by a ballgame and that link is made, that could do more long-term damage than anything that has happened to this point.

Because, unfortunately, none of us really know the right answer here.

But I am hopeful after seeing the PGA Tour aim for June and the Australian Football League talking about July. 

2. The economic impact of these shutdowns becomes more and more apparent:

Baseball America wrote up a piece on why fan free games aren’t going to make sense for MiLB and what not playing in 2020 would mean for minor league baseball going forward.

The economic challenges are going to be felt all over. Colleges are likely going to be put in a position to cut sports like the University of Cincinnati did with soccer this week.

As a holistic thing, Research and Markets put together a report this week that tries and cover everything about the entertainment industry and the impact of the virus on folks.

Like a lot of stuff, the analysis and the information coming out from reputable sources needs to be parsed with for context and when you see anyone tell you something is all or nothing…take that with a grain of salt.

Bill Sutton tweeted out a call for teams to get on the virtual season tickets now and over the years I’ve been calling for folks to think more seriously about their membership model, their email lists, and how they are developing their global fan bases.

Harry DeMott from Ticket Evolution wrote up a good piece on restoring liquidity to the ticketing ecosystem as I was finishing this up that is worth a read.

Whatever position you find yourself in right now, your strategy going forward is going to be more important than ever. And, if doing things the way we’ve always done things is a bad idea in the best of times, right now it is a really bad idea to settle for that answer.

3. StubHub, refunds, cancellations, and more continue to make the news: 

The regulators in the UK continue to look into the merger between Viagogo and StubHub. And, as was mentioned in the press this week, “worst timed acquisition ever“?

Vivid Seats did announce their refund and exchange policy this week and it looks a lot different than Ticketmaster’s or StubHub’s.

AEG is offering a 30-day window for fans to get refunds and once a new date is announced, fans will get another 30 days.

While many of us have focused a lot of our attention on the platforms and technology companies, the same uncertainty is trickling into other areas with college football programs feeling the pinch because of the compromised place they find themselves.

Let’s be real here, college programs are only feeling the pinch now because most of them had the earliest deadlines…at a certain point, this is going to be a refrain that all of us are going to hear. Again, it goes back to the point above…we need clarity, information, and guidance on what the next several months look like before folks are really going to feel comfortable doing much of the stuff that we consider normal.

Leadership 101 stuff.

4. How are you connecting with your fans and customers during the pandemic?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve highlighted some really cool examples of using assets, content, and ideas to connect with folks.

The link above is from my friend, Blair Hughes, down in Brisbane. He’s been focusing on fan engagement since 2013 and he updated his resource guides this week to include a few new ideas that will work even when you are socially distanced from your fans.

The Indianapolis Indians were lauded by the governor. The Red Sox dropped coloring sheets. There are tons of free videos and performances from organizations all over the world. 

I’ve struggled with this a little bit because what do you offer folks when there is so much uncertainty. My path has been to continue to figure out how to add value and share ideas with folks. (To be fair, it is selfish as well because focusing on others helps me overcome the gaping void of being an entirely inadequate 4th-grade teacher and helps keep some of those negative thought processes at bay.)

But what are you doing to connect with folks now? Let me know and I can try and highlight some of these ideas as well.

5. The ticketing industry is doing a lot of stuff to help everyone weather this crisis together: 

This week INTIX announced a relief fund, the INTIX Member Covid-19 Relief Fund. 100% of funds will go to member assistance to help members of the ticket community bridge the economic gap while we wait out the pandemic.

Any gift matters, even $1.

As Maureen says that all folks want to do is help and I agree. So if you can, support this effort.

On top of the relief fund, Maureen and her team are hosting a weekly Zoom call on Wednesdays at 12 PM EDT. Anyone can join, no matter if you are a member or not. This week’s had over 200 folks.

The ALSD has a list of resources and ways for folks to learn and connect during the pandemic.

Global Citizen has put together the Live Aid of the Covid-19 crisis for tomorrow, 18 April.

Crew Nation is Live Nation’s effort to help the crews that make the shows happen. The Arts Council in the UK is also working to help freelancers and other folks impacted by the shutdowns. Theatre Support as well.  Indie venues band together to form a group to lobby congress for support of the industry.

While it isn’t about giving any money to support folks, MLS put up a training site so folks can keep their soccer skills fresh during the social distancing. And, if you have a young kid, this is likely enough to make you weep.

This is on top of all the other things I’ve highlighted over the last few weeks. If you or your organization are doing something to help folks, let me know and I will highlight it and share it here and with my community as well.

As I finish this up, I love when folks run and do challenges in their local communities…so I saw this one from Rob Sibbitts in Atlanta and he has completed his challenge…but maybe we can convince him to run another race for a local nonprofit.

My buddy, Greg Turner, who lives outside of Hong Kong just translated a report for anyone that is interested in learning more about the Chinese market for arts and entertainment. It doesn’t fit into the weathering the crisis theme, but it does give you something new to explore and since China is slowly starting to return to normal activities could give you some food for thought about what to think about in all of your home markets.

—————————————————————————————————————-

What am I up to this week?

Guess what? I’m still at home! I am doing the webinar that is listed at the top and I’m starting to drop new content on the podcast feed.

Want to chat? Let me know. Between my duties as an awful elementary school teacher, I’ve got plenty of time and will to chat. And, I’m happy to be here if someone needs someone to talk with. 

Please follow and like us:

Talking Tickets: 17 April 2020–Refunds! Restarts! Support! And, More! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

[brajeshupadhyay]

Two days before learning that she would lose her job, Lissa Gilliam spent hundreds of dollars online on baby products. A 37-year-old expectant mother, Ms. Gilliam had planned to ask local parents in Seattle for used strollers and secondhand onesies in a bid to reduce waste. But as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the area, new items delivered in boxes seemed a safer bet. She figured she could afford the splurge, earning $50 an hour as a full-time contractor designing educational curriculums for a nonprofit. But then, on April 2, her employer slashed her hours and told her that her contract would end in early May — a few weeks before she is to give birth. Suddenly, like many others, Ms. Gilliam became hyperaware of her expenses. She and her husband, a high school physics teacher, now take a painful daily tally of their financial priorities: Is that $5 monthly web magazine subscription really necessary? How much does watering the garden cost? When will they need to tap their paltry savings? “We’re OK for now,” she said. “But the bottom may fall out from under us.” As millions of Americans lose jobs, take pay cuts, close businesses and absorb family members into their homes, they are being forced to rethink where their money goes. Even before the scramble for new jobs can begin, people are cajoling creditors, looking for gig work or simply cutting back to get through the first few disorienting weeks. “An economic shock like this could have a long-term impact on people who have traditionally felt like they were being cautious, that they weren’t profligate with their money, but didn’t have to worry about paying for rent or affording food,” said Stephanie Aaronson, the director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution. “They might have more debt, which will make it harder to spend in the future, or they might just feel less secure, which could boost savings and potentially dampen the recovery.” Ms. Gilliam and her husband are waiting for Washington State to make jobless benefits available to contractors through a federal assistance program, and hope to take advantage of a state program for maternity aid once their daughter is born. A $15,000 construction project planned for the rear of their house is on hold. They canceled their gym membership, their Hulu streaming service, multiple newspapers and even the Adobe Acrobat software that Ms. Gilliam uses for design work. On the whole, Ms. Aaronson said, household finances “were in relatively good condition as of six weeks ago — they were actually pretty healthy.” Now, she said, “a much broader swath of households are experiencing a complete loss of income compared to what we typically see in a recession.” Before the pandemic, Carol Cruz’s private health insurance plan cost her $840 a month — up from less than $500 four years ago. The bill ate up most of her $1,200 monthly paycheck, exceeding even the $600 monthly payment on the house she shares with her husband and their 17-year-old granddaughter in Tulare, Calif. On March 29, she was furloughed from her part-time job as a mental health therapist until at least the end of May. Other than the state unemployment benefits she hopes to receive soon, Ms. Cruz, 62, no longer has an income. So she got on the phone for at least three hours a day, asking for leniency from the health insurance provider, her mortgage lender and the credit union that holds the loan for her husband’s Chevrolet truck. All offered her more flexible terms, including 90-day grace periods and pay-what-you-can options. (Some creditors, she said, were less willing to negotiate.) The adjustments help keep the bills manageable, Ms. Cruz said. But her grocery costs have doubled, now that the price of eggs has soared and her granddaughter is no longer having free lunches at school. “I don’t know about my future,” Ms. Cruz said. “I’m not letting myself think about tomorrow, just about whether we have food today and money in the bank.” But some people, many of whom have never seriously budgeted, are now mapping out strict spending schedules for the next few months. After being furloughed in mid-March from her bartending and serving job at a Minneapolis concert hall, Krissy Calbert, 26, went from earning $300 in tips some nights to having no income as she waited for government aid. “It was two weeks of just panic — I was just going off the groceries I already had, trying to ration until money came in,” she said. “You get really creative. You eat little half meals, and you experiment with your seasonings and condiments to try to forget that you’re eating the same thing over and over.” Earlier this month, Ms. Calbert began receiving a weekly infusion of $1,100 from the state. She is now trying to reschedule when monthly bills are due so she can space out the payments: $600 for rent, $75 for her phone, up to $120 for utilities, $60 for streaming services, $200 for credit cards, plus other expenses. “I’m trying to get all of my credit card payments into the same week, so I can have a credit card week, a rent week, a phone week,” Ms. Calbert said. She has switched her grocery shopping from Target to Aldi, where, she said, she can afford to splurge on fresh produce and protein. Without health insurance, she is willing spend an extra $30 or $40 on fruits and vegetables in hopes of keeping her immune system strong, she said. “I can’t take the risk,” Ms. Calbert said. “A hospital bill right now would ruin me.” More than half of lower-income adults in the United States say they will struggle to pay bills this month, compared to a quarter of their middle-income counterparts and 11 percent of those in the upper-income tier, according to a survey of nearly 5,000 adults by Pew Research Center. Researchers defined a three-person household earning $37,500 to $112,600 annually as middle-income. Over all, more than half of those who expect a federal stimulus infusion will use most of the money to cover essential expenses, while one in five say they plan to save the funds. To create a financial buffer, many people are hunting for freelance or part-time work. Searches for work-from-home jobs rose 126 percent in March on FlexJobs, while traffic to the site has boomed 58 percent from a year ago. On Upwork, companies are looking for people to provide tech support for their homebound employees and to draft corporate messages about the coronavirus. Lonn Dugan, a digital marketing specialist in Sylvania, Ohio, has seen many clients scaling back their promotional efforts, such as one nonprofit that cut its budget by 90 percent after a major annual event was canceled. But another client, an agricultural supply company, commissioned a major website update, while a local mental health group wanted to ramp up its virtual support groups. The pressure on Mr. Dugan, 60, is intense. His workday is three hours longer than it used to be, between his existing clients and his attempts to drum up new business. He and his wife lost a third of their incomes; neither is eligible for government aid. “We’re completely overwhelmed by the shortfall. We can afford groceries and maybe the house and car payments, and that’s it,” he said. “But we’re not alone, and we’re focusing on acceptance as opposed to hand-wringing. We’re taking care of necessities, and that’s enough for right now.” Still, Mr. Dugan admits being stretched thin emotionally. He misses his wife, even though they are in the same house and she no longer needs to make a two-hour round-trip commute to her health care job. But the couple are so busy trying to stay afloat that they have stopped cooking fresh meals and turn instead to frozen dinners and fast food. “We just don’t have time,” he said. “We’re exhausted at the end of the day.” The post Finances – The New York Times appeared first on Sansaar Times.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/05/finances-new-york-times.html

[skeptic42]

Neerav Kingsland on "The case for charter schools"

Rationally Speaking Podcast.

BLUF: While I’m dubious about schools that seek to compete with public education, especially when they take public funds, what New Orleans has done is not so much implement charter schools, but borrowed from the charter model to revamp public education.  I think they turned a tragedy into an opportunity.

Pre-listening

Now, I’v read Sarah Stitzlein’s American Public Education and the Responsibility of its Citizens: Supporting Democracy in the Age of Accountability, so I’m a bit dubious.  While charter schools can “outperform” public schools there’s more to public schools than creating the next generation of workers.  The other function of public education is creating citizens that can function in a democracy.  (Thomas Jefferson believed public education was a pillar of democracy.)  People forget that the US is a democratic capitalist society.  They often focus on capitalism, as charter schools do (a lot of their verbiage revolves around financial terms and their business model is capitalistic, education is a commodity).  Democracy usually applies to their freedom of speech and not anyone else’s they disagree with.  (”This is a democratic society, I can to whatever I want.”  No.  You’re wrong.  You don’t understand how a democracy functions.)

Charter schools, voucher schools, magnet schools and their ilk mainly focus on production.  The generation of test scores, the “only” way to gauge the value of the education.  Religious schools also focus on putting out more believers, and enriching the church.

All on the tax payers tab.

Integration has been enacted across the US, sadly, unevenly.  I grew up in CA being bused miles to school from the 4th grade onward, New Orleans, however, has historically had a lot of problems, whether through neglect or resistance, I can’t say.

But the integration exposes children to various socio-economic strata that they would not normally be exposed to until they join the “real” world.  This integration is beneficial to society, studies have demonstrated this.

Charter schools are not without problems.  This is not indicative of all charter schools, just as the problems in New Orleans is indicative of public schools.  But inevitably, proponents of both will disregard everything that makes them look bad, while pointing out what makes the other look bad.  Always with the disingenuous application of standards.

The problem with the current arrangements of charter schools is that despite the idea of parents being able to “choose” the right school for their child, and letting the market determine which schools survive and which fold is the commodification of education.  Test scores aren’t the only measure of a successful education.  A person who cannot understand that people thinking differently from them aren’t automatically wrong is a dysfunctional citizen.

Plus when charter schools actually perform worse, parents do not move their children.  They “fight” for the right to choose and to get their children a “better” education, yet when things go bad, they do nothing.  At that point it’s not about getting their children a better education, it’s about the ability to choose.  Even when that choice is poor, moving a child is an indication that they made a bad choice.  Plus when a charter school closes, where do the children go?

They get dumped on public schools that don’t have adequate funding because the charter school got the money and folded.  (Take the money and run.)

Parents also choose schools that fit their ideology and are attended by children from families within the same socio-economic strata of society, doing an end-run around integration.  Again, resulting in the inability to comprehend people from other backgrounds.

It also doesn’t help that charter schools are run as corporations.  Parents are customers, it’s all about getting a better job to make more money (not necessarily bad, but anyone’s life centered on money is pretty shallow to begin with).  It’s not really about education, it’s about creating a better workforce, which is what public education got turned into.

Education does need to be vastly improved, but commodification is not the way forward.  The market model does not work.

I do understand that it’s “hard to argue with success.”  But if one measurement of education is all that’s needed, then obviously how fast a car goes is the best measure of success and we should all buy the fastest car.  Ridiculous, don’t you think?  If you have a family of 6, not gonna get them all in that 2-seater are you?  There are many types of criteria.

Post-Listen

The great thing is they have a transcript, so I don’t have to recall everything from my car journey.

New Orleans is an unusual case in that the city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  So with the rebuilding of the city came the opportunity to rebuild the schools.  This resulted in an injection of cash not previously available.  And as one would expect, a well thought-out design and rebuild of most anything will bring with it inherit improvements.

Nerrev: But out of that tragedy we had a chance to rethink public schooling in the city. A group of leaders went around the country to try to figure out what to replicate, what city in the United States was knocking it out of the park for low income minority kids. And unfortunately in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we didn't have one city [out of] the hubs of wealth and talent in our country, that was doing great things in public schools for low income kids.

Now, we bitch about how bad public education is, this is practically cultural by this point in time, even if we don’t actually know what it is that we’re bitching about and latch onto any stray comment from other people to bolster our view which was essentially established while in school as children, bitching about school because it cut into play time.  In short, we hated school growing up, so we continue to hate school without actually understanding why.

Along with that comes how good other countries are.  Not counties, countries.  Our society has gone on about how good education is Japan.  So instead of looking to examples of excellence, they studied poor examples, and reached the obvious conclusion.

So instead of adopting what another city was doing, we took our own path. And that ended, as you know from the intro, in creating the country's first basically 100% charter school system.

Which, when you don’t follow previous models that aren’t working, is a good thing.  However, the charter craze, I suspect, had much to do with the decision.  You aren’t really looking at “new” ways to improve education, you’re looking at newer ways to do the same thing, but with a twist.

Education as a commodity.

Julia (interviewer): That seems like such a radical step.

It’s “radical” in that it’s not what we customarily do in the US.  However, back in the old country, England, this is normal.  You can attempt to get your child into any school you like, be it private, public (Church of England), catholic, grammar (which is not like what we call grammar schools in the States); private, being just like private schools in the US, the parents pay.

Neerav: I would say [it was] maybe in year four, year five after the reforms began, looking at the data where the charter schools were dramatically outperforming the traditional system that was being built… A group of us and parents who were choosing these schools wanted to know what was working.

I'd say about half way through the reforms, the vision of, “Well, maybe this is just a better way to do public education,” started the forum.

The problem here is that what charters schools get is an injection of cash.  Anything new and fresh will do better, not just from the cash, but the driving expectation of progress.  Mental attitude toward something affects a lot of how we interact with something.  Looking at a fresh new building stuffed full of sleek new technology vs. our already-preconceived notion of failure, our expectation levels are raised.

Nerrav: Then we had to build a regulatory system around that. What would it mean if the whole public school system was all charter? What does the government do then? How does it oversee those charters?

This is actually a good thing and very necessary.  Public funds are being used, therefore government oversight is needed

Now this next bit is interesting:

Neerav: ...the system had really bottomed out before. There's a story about the FBI renting out a floor in the building where the school district was setting up wiretaps and convicting over 20 people. ...  Fraud. Basically stealing from public school students. ... In the administrative office. Dead people on the payroll.

(Note: the only thing I could find didn’t mention anything about dead people on the payroll, and it was 10 people charged, while he may be incorrect on the details, the fact is something major did happen with an FBI investigation.  This isn’t a jab at Neerav, we all get details wrong, and my search might not have yielded the true event.)

But it’s not just public schools that have problems with fraud, as was demonstrated by the collapse of ECOT in Ohio for overstating student numbers, thus enriching the school.  Oversight is massively important to prevent fraud.  Any system that received public funds to provide a service should be answerable to the tax payer.  Charter schools in general aren’t answerable, so here, it sounds like New Orleans deviates from the norm.

Neerav: I think some people mistake charter schools as a way to avoid democratic oversight of public schools.  

New Orleans has now married those. So there's a local school board, locally elected. But the locally elected political entity, instead of running schools, now oversees them. All the schools in New Orleans are governed by nonprofit organizations, and the elected government institution regulator like the FCC or SEC or anything like that.

Now, at this point, I will admit, that my initial hesitancy is diminishing.  Not simply because “charter schools are better” but this is getting to be less and less like a charter school, and more like a revamped, if slightly, public education system.  But it sounds like they still have the charter school model with them being disconnected from each other.

What I’m not certain on is if they have implemented anything to prevent the collapse of a charter school.  What happens when that happens?  Will the other schools take students on?  Will the state step in?  When students get dumped on public schools by the thousands (14+K by ECOT), that money has to be made up somehow; the money for the students was taken by the charter.

Neerav: The government really has two main roles in New Orleans. One is to oversee the system for performance. So, to let the schools that are doing the best to expand, and to selectively replace the schools that aren't meeting kids' needs. The second is around equity. So, are public schools serving kids with special needs?

Again, what happens to “replaced” schools.  You’re not going to build a new one from scratch.  Oversight isn’t only about performance, it’s about fiduciary responsibility.  This is tax payer’s money, it’s not money waiting for people to have kids.

Also,if parents made bad choices, should they have to pay it back?  Should serial bad-choice parents be denied the “right” to choose?

I have read some anecdotal cases of charter schools rejecting kids with special needs and condemning them to public schools to carry the burden of their associated costs.  And who can blame the charter school?  In a capitalist society, the bottom line is the most important thing, charter schools are businesses and need to be run viably.  Granted, New Orleans is non-profit, and surely their charter schools just can’t rebuff every child with extra needs, but it sounds like there is no public schools to fall back on.

Neerav: The easiest way to think about charter schools is they're basically public schools that are governed by nonprofit boards, for the most part. About 80% of them are nonprofit. Rather than by the locally elected school board.

What about the other 20%?  So it’s not entirely nonprofit as he stated earlier.  This must be “new English,”  when you say “all” it doesn’t mean all, it means like about 80%.  20% is apparently not part of all.

Neerav: Most cities have traditional government monopolies that run the public school system. Charters are a way to allow nonprofits to operate within the public confines, but with a different governance level.

I’m actually rather disappointed in Mr Neerav in this instance, especially after saying “all” “80%” of the charters in New Orleans are nonprofit.  How does a man with a law degree not understand what a monopoly is?  Nor how to apply it.  In the case of public education - note the word public - monopoly is not applicable.  There are private schools that are not governed the way public schools are, even though they have to meet certain requirements.  Public education in relation to the citizens is the same as the roads, the police, and the military.  Saying the government has a monopoly on public education is the same as saying the government has a monopoly on laws, courts, roads, air traffic control, national parks, or any other thing that the government runs and overseas.  Control doesn’t necessarily mean monopoly and all it’s inherit nuances.

Monopoly as Mr. Neerav disingenuously uses it means the government has sole control over education, regulating it’s cost, access to, and works to drive competitors out of business.  There was another moron in the comments section that refers to public education as a “socialized monopoly.”  His gross stupidity I suspect is due to his lack of education on what “to socialize” and what monopolize means.  He is a perfect example of why public education is failing.

Neerav: ... the nonprofit governance has really been a breakthrough, in terms of allowing for greater efficacy.

Just to be clear, efficacy means the ability to produce a desired result, it does not mean efficient.  Better education in this case.  And it does.  But I doubt that this alone is responsible for the achievement.  New Orleans had an opportunity that is not available to anyone else - actually it is, but it’s not really - they could rebuild from scratch.  What they got to shed is what holds back everyone else, static inertia.  Schools are loath to spend the necessary funds to entirely revamp school districts.  Everyone wants the improvements, but everyone wants the improvements.  It’s a dichotomy.  New Orleans didn’t have a choice, but it sounds like this made some good solid choices.

Neerav: Vouchers are different, in that they're outside the public system. You're getting public funding, as a family that's using a voucher, but you can attend, let's say, a Catholic private school. That Catholic school can be religious affiliated, it might not need to take the state test.

To me, this is the fundamental difference between what we see going on elsewhere and New Orleans.

The funny (hypocritical? ironic?) thing is people who are opposed to socialism willingly take government assistance to put their kids in private schools.

I’ll draw it to a close here.  There’s too much to analyze.

Conclusion:

In short, I oppose vouchers, but New Orleans charter schools are not voucher schools.  They’ve taken a horrible situation and turned it into a fortuitous event.  I was very dubious about this at first, but they’re running Public Education under an altered model.  The model itself I would say isn’t the only reason for the improvements, but is doesn’t hurt.

If anything, it forces parents to be more involved in their children’s education.  I can tell you from experience that having to look around an numerous schools and study them to find the right one for your child.  It’s both demanding and rewarding.  I’m not sure if New Orleans has catchment areas (kind of like school districts), meaning if busy (or lazy) parents do nothing, they’ll be guaranteed a spot at the nearest school.  Coming from a country that relies on pipelines for progression, it seems really bizarre.

Mr. Neerav keeps denigrating public education - unnecessarily - making me suspect that he either doesn’t understand what public education is or he’s using the argument to fight off opposition.  New Orleans is still running public schools but under a new model.  The dynamics have changed, that’s the main difference.

[restorerjourney]

Remix so far

September 9, 2021

The first two weeks were rough. I was in Oahu about 6 years ago and it was one of the most relaxing places I’ve ever been to! So I was asking myself two weeks ago why I am so stressed now? it wasn’t easy feeling stressed with the unknown and having to deal with what I was going to do with my future. I would unconsciously clench my jaw and have jaw pain at the end of the day. My acne flared up to the worst it has been which made me more stressed and question why God was allowing this. We as a team had a lot of moments of miscommunication because of our living situation initially. I also felt I was having troubles with a different person each day. Living in close proximity with 15 people and one toilet...let me tell you, is truly sanctifying lol..but praise God we haven’t killed each other yet and our relationships as a family has gotten deeper than ever before.

In this season, God invited me to physically rest and enjoy this month which was very difficult because I was initially anxious. I was disappointed at first with my anxiety, because I felt all that I learned from DTS flew out the window, but by His grace, He walked with me to really enjoy my time here. It was a time I might not get to rest like this and one of the pastors here that we are affiliated with even lend his car to us for a whole month free of charge! This was.a blessing in disguise as a lot of us were getting low in our remaining funds. We mostly went to the beach, snorkeled, and hung out in cafes or at home. In the morning we had different speakers come and give us words of wisdom and their testimonies on how to transition back to our specific sphere of life God has placed us. Here are some gold nuggets that I compiled with the different speakers...

-try to understand your greatest weakness

-pursuing success is so different from pursuing obedience

*Who am I becoming by what I do today?..your future changes by what you do today.

-What am I going to bring from YWAM to the world?

-What is the biggest problem in the world? It is the lack of understanding who God is.

-The more you understand who God is, the more life make sense.

-The two greatest moment in your life. The moment you were born and the moment you know why.

-Did you know that God is fun?

-You are investing in yourself to invest others. 

-Every story in the bible is to teach you character.

-Your talents take you to the top but your character is what keeps you there. 

-If you see a reward for change, you will always change. It’s a mindset! 

-Only place you can grow in God is usually in discomfort

-God always rewards those who obey

-Delayed obedience = disobedience

-To hear God, obey God, and let Him deal with the consequences.

-It’s always right, to do what’s right, even if you don’t feel like it. Everyday we face this decision.

-Our generation wants the reward before obedience. Our reward for obeying God is more responsibility but our generation wants less responsibility.

-Am I living inside a box of comfort? the known? the dependent on self? Outside of the box is when we are truly depending on God and He is inviting you. It’s called faith. 

-How are you reshaping your lifestyle to follow Christ instead of fitting the traditional life style?

-Christ follower lifestyle is to follow Matthew 28:16-20 and 22: 37-40. 

-Am I worried about surviving? With the mentality of surviving, you stepped out of God’s hand and are trying to taking things in your control. 

-In my lifestyle, how do I feel and where does this come from? A lot of the times it is lack of rest.

-In my lifestyle, am I a new creation of God? 

-Did you know comparison is a sin? God never compares you with someone else.

-When we abide in Jesus, we get to live in so much freedom!

-Everything belongs to God. If you buy bread at the grocery store, did you create that bread? How could one say it is theirs when they didn’t create it? When you were born, could you claim and say it is your life? Did you make that decision while you were being born? When you harvest a crop, could you say it is yours? Did you make it grow or did you only plant the seeds and water it? All belongs to Him.

-God’s kingdom works like water...flowing from where there is abundance to the lowest place and it evens out. 

During this process of rest and spending time with God and community, He asked me one day what I would like to do after DTS. He also asked me what would make me happy? I thought of so many different choices but I realized in the end, I just wanted to follow Jesus. I want what’s best and I trust Jesus gives me the best so I’ll follow Him. I just honestly couldn’t imagine my life without Him and I want to live in the new freedom I’ve gained in Christ to the next chapter God is taking me. During that time, one of the speakers named Tom and Cindy Baeur came and left such a lasting impression on me. They are in their 70′s who started a ministry and non-profit organization called Surf the nations 10 years ago. Personally they are solid in Christ, truly exemplifying what a man and woman of godly character looks like, and their lifestyle is close to what I would like to do when I am at their age. Their obedience to God is evident by the fruits in their ministry. They felt that the Lord called them to market themselves as a nonprofit organization which has opened so many doors to those who do not know Christ and even other countries like North Korea. They got the opportunity there to develop relationships with them and share the gospel. They have a passion for investing in the youth and being a light into their communities locally and globally. They run a discipleship program similar to YWAM but it’s only 3 months long. Another fruit is the impact they made in their community locally. Through God’s supernatural provision and their “yes” to following Him, they were able to purchase a strip of buildings where it used to be part of the red light district here in Oahu. What was a porn shop became a self-sustainable coffee shop to support this organization. What was a strip club and liquor store, is now a boutique and surf shop where all proceeds goes to help the organization and empower other small businesses globally. This is just scratching the surface. 

Long story short, during my DTS and doing life with my team, I had the opportunity to learn more about my gifts and talents God has given me. I also have been walking in faith to what I believe God is leading me towards starting a business. Before DTS, business was the last thing I would want to do because my mom owns one and I saw how it robbed my mom’s attention from our family. I also couldn’t imagine what a Christian business would look like. I just knew if I were to do business, I would want it to be self-sustainable, to be a light in my community, and to impact globally either directly or indirectly by empowering the weak and marginalized communities. I just couldn’t imagine it was possible until I saw their organization and what God was doing. I also realized that when I am old, I could see myself so much happier impacting and discipling the younger generation and doing missions till the day I die. I felt like finally I made a realization to what truly makes me alive and flourish and it is to be in the mission field following Christ wherever He chooses to take me. 

That’s when I felt a pull in my heart from God to consider doing a leadership training program with Surf the Nations which consists of 15 months of missionary living. Three months are dedicated to training, and the 12 months is to activate what has been trained. Because they are a pioneering organization and they are launching a business ministry as well, I felt the timing couldn’t be more perfect. 

So for now I am saying “yes” to what I believe God is calling me to join the Surf the Nations Leadership Training Program here in Oahu for the next year and a half! 

Am I scared? Heck yea. But I’m just called to walk in obedience and allow God to confirm as I walk in faith. I’m still praying through the process and I believe God will clearly confirm it to me in His perfect time and He will open and close doors if this is from Him. 

Prayer request:

1) To enjoy the rest and community that we have with each other before we depart back to our homes

2) My mom is coming this Sunday and I believe God is using this time to help her experience possibly the next chapter in my life as I decide to move to Oahu.

3) To focus my eyes on Christ as He walks me towards the next chapter in my life.To not let fear, comparison, doubts, and other opinions hinder me from walking in obedience to Him.

Mahalo~

Alicia Kim

[seedfinance]

The world’s big tech firms are gearing up for a massive fight with Modi’s India, IT News, ET CIO

Saritha Rai and Vlad Savov

India is becoming increasingly confident in its efforts to control online communications, challenging the practices of Twitter and Facebook and threatening to set a precedent that could go well beyond its borders.

The largest US internet companies are fighting against new intermediary rules enacted by Narendra Modi’s government in February that restrict privacy and freedom of expression. Officials have urged Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. to remove hundreds of posts this year, divulge sensitive user information, and submit to a regulatory regime that allows for potential jail sentences for executives if companies fail to comply.

While government efforts to exercise more control over user data and online discourse mirror global efforts to control tech giants and their vast influence, Internet firms are particularly at stake in India because – excluded from China – it’s the only billion people market themselves to the market. In contrast to authoritarian regimes like Beijing, critics fear that measures by the world’s largest democracy could offer other governments a blueprint to invade privacy in the name of internal security.

“India has made draconian changes to its rules,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in April. They “create new opportunities for state surveillance of citizens. These rules threaten the idea of ​​a free and open Internet based on international human rights standards. “

Holding internet companies accountable for published content – and in some cases making executives personally liable – goes beyond what many countries require and is a key point of contention. Trapped in this tug of war are hundreds of millions in India whose use of the Internet is now at stake. Facebook’s WhatsApp is on trial, arguing that the new rules would bypass encryption, a key feature the company has touted in global marketing.

Modi’s government has been targeting Twitter for the past few months as it is considered the social platform of choice for politicians and celebrities. Cabinet ministers have accused the US company of defying orders and proposed removing it from its intermediary status, which should make it directly responsible for the content posted by its users. In May, Twitter tagged tweets from multiple accounts linked to Modi’s party as “compromised media”. Police investigators have since called officers and their offices, putting business in the world’s second most populous nation at risk.

“Twitter is in a no-win situation here,” said Mike Masnick, founder of tech policy blog Techdirt. “Giving in to excessive government demands not only suppresses important speeches, but opens the company to even more pressure to silence government critics in India and elsewhere.”

Representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), which oversees regulation, did not respond to multiple calls and emails asking for comments. WhatsApp and Twitter representatives declined to comment beyond previous statements that they were anxious to comply with state regulations.

India has stated that it welcomes criticism and dissent and its new rules are aimed at protecting public order and preventing harmful content such as child pornography and abuse videos. The country has been grappling with an explosion of fake news on social media in recent years, much of it targeting a largely first-time internet audience unaccustomed to sifting through online falsehoods. It came into conflict with Facebook in 2018 when the government asked WhatsApp to curb the spread of news related to two dozen lynchings. Facebook’s response then was to restrict the forwarding of messages and mark them as “forwarded”.

WhatsApp has more than 530 million users in India, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube has about 450 million, and Facebook has over 410 million users, making it the largest market for all three. Twitter, a comparatively small minnow with 17.5 million users, is one of the fastest growing areas in India. But that limited reach makes it vulnerable in a nation that was ready to ban popular foreign services a year ago when it banned TikTok – which had 200 million users registered in the country – WeChat and hundreds more China-made apps after a violent clash on the controversial border between the two countries.

As in the US, however, Twitter exerts a disproportionate influence in relation to its size. It is vital to the political discussion in India, and Modi himself is an avid user and has a following of over 69 million, demonstrating its international reach. While ministers have tweeted belligerently on Twitter, no one has yet openly threatened to ban it.

Even during the conflict with China, India can still draw inspiration from its neighbor’s experiences, where the void left by foreign social platforms blocked to resisting strict censorship has created space for domestic alternatives to develop. In fact, Modi’s colleagues have been actively promoting Koo, a local microblogging rival.

“I have to imagine Modi looking at China thinking it can achieve economic prosperity while exercising a lot of authoritarian control over language and communication,” said Katie Harbath, a former Facebook director of public policy with the US the country’s officials worked together in the fall of 2013, ahead of Modi’s first election as prime minister, through earlier this year. “So the big question is where will India go?”

An open letter signed by 14 nonprofits urged the government to suspend implementation of India’s new IT rules that went into effect last month.

Much of the current resentment stems from the government’s drive to control discussions since November over peasant protests, which have centered on proposals to tax farm inputs and remove minimum price support. The government forced Twitter to block some popular figures expressing support for the protesters – such as Punjabi singer JazzyB, whose account has 1.2 million followers but is inaccessible within India – although the company does not have all of its Has implemented demands.

US and EU lawmakers should pay more attention to the South Asian country, Harbath said. Like Masnick, she sees few good opportunities for private companies to oppose laws from above, and it would be up to the international community to steer India back onto a more liberal path.

The US has embraced India as a counterweight to China in recent years and has strengthened defense cooperation as part of the four-nation quad group, which also includes the other democracies of Japan and Australia. For its part, Modi’s government has sought to attract companies looking to diversify their supply chains away from China – which gives it an incentive to maintain good relationships with the Biden government and the American business community at large.

Relationships with American social platforms were much warmer and more cooperative in the early years of the Modi administration. In 2015, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg invited Modi to a town hall event at the company’s headquarters. The two men hugged and smiled at the cameras. But, Harbath said, whenever the government’s popularity has waned since then – following measures like the sudden currency demonetization in 2016 – it has become more aggressive to steer public narrative.

Most recently, Modi’s government was targeted on Twitter by critics who say it botched efforts to fight Covid-19. In response, she has tried to block recent criticism on Twitter, which shows anger and disappointment with the Indian leader.

“Silicon Valley’s social media platforms have a huge base in India and the confrontation is who controls these users,” said Tarun Pathak from Delhi, research director at Counterpoint. “In the next three to five years, around 300 million new users equal to the US population will go online in India, shifting the balance of power for these companies eastward.”

Twitter appointed an interim compliance officer two weeks ago, long after its colleagues assigned permanent representatives, and that person is due to leave the position. A company spokesman did not want to confirm or comment on the reasons.

Meanwhile, Kenner told ET that Twitter had given the government “in writing” details of its newly appointed interim chief compliance officer. Previously, she had contracted a lawyer to act as a complaint and node officer.

On Friday, the head of MEITY, Ravi Shankar Prasad, temporarily blocked his Twitter account because of a complaint about alleged copyright infringement, according to the company. When the frequent Twitter antagonist regained access, he wrote that his “actions indicate that they are not the harbinger of the freedom of expression they claim to be, only interested in pursuing their own ends.” Twitter declined to comment, but cited its original statement that Prasad’s account was temporarily suspended for copyright infringement.

Twitter was recently quoted by Uttar Pradesh police along with journalists and opposition party leaders for hosting a video provoking communal discord, according to local reports. Delhi police also said they are investigating another complaint against Twitter’s Indian chief Manish Maheshwari related to this video allegedly alleging that majority Hindus are attacking a minority Muslim man. The company has since removed the offensive clip and has left no comment other than its statement of compliance with local laws. The government of Uttar Pradesh has petitioned the Supreme Court of India to have Maheshwari lifted from arrest by a lower court.

Without pressure on India to reclaim its online power – as the Washington Post editors called this month – companies like Twitter must carefully weigh their decisions to avoid being ousted by a huge market while upholding their principles, said Harbath.

It is a delicate dance that is becoming more and more common around the world. Countries as far away as Australia, Poland and Nigeria are cracking down on social platforms, claiming they have undue power to determine what is acceptable and meddling in domestic affairs. Nigeria banned Twitter this month and Germany’s hate speech rules will require platforms to remove illegal content quickly or face penalties.

“It’s complicated. A decision by these companies in India will not apply to India alone,” said Prateek Waghre of Bangalore, a research analyst with the Takshashila Institution who studies digital platform governance serve the rest of the world. “

IT and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was in the thick of it as the new social media guidelines became a focal point for a showdown between the government and Twitter and WhatsApp on privacy and free speech issues.

source https://seedfinance.net/2021/07/05/the-worlds-big-tech-firms-are-gearing-up-for-a-massive-fight-with-modis-india-it-news-et-cio/

[stephenmccull]

What the Slowing Vaccine Rates Mean for One Rural Montana County

KALISPELL, Mont. — The covid vaccination operation at the Flathead County fairgrounds can dole out 1,000 doses in seven hours. But demand has plummeted recently, down to fewer than 70 requests for the shots a day.

This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free.

So, at the start of May, the northwestern Montana county dropped its mass vaccination offerings from three to two clinics a week. Though most of those eligible in the county haven’t yet gotten a dose, during the final Thursday clinic on April 29, few cars pulled up and nurses had time to chat between patients.

“It’s a trickle,” said Flathead City-County Health Officer Joe Russell. “Not enough people will get vaccinated to reach herd immunity, not in Flathead County and maybe not in Montana.”

Daily covid vaccination rates are falling nationwide. Gaps in vaccine uptake are starting to show, especially in rural America. That leaves many communities grappling with an imperfect pandemic endgame.

Flathead stands out as one of Montana’s most populated counties to fall behind. There, 25% of people had been fully vaccinated by May 10. To compare, nearly 33% of Montanans were fully vaccinated, and that figure is closer to 35% nationwide.

Flathead County is a medical destination for the top corner of the state, a gateway to Glacier National Park and neighbor to two tribal nations. It’s Montana’s fourth-largest county by population with more than 103,000 people, yet it’s rural — 18 people per square mile. It’s also conservative, with the majority of residents voting for former President Donald Trump last year. National polling has shown rural Americans and Republicans to be among the most resistant to getting vaccines.

Russell said he hopes at least 40% of Flathead County residents eventually get the shots. That’s well below the 70% to 80% believed to be needed to create widespread protection from the pathogen that has stalled normal life.

Public health experts worry about reservoirs of the virus fueling outbreaks. That possibility further strains year-old tensions in places such as Flathead County, where strangers and family members alike can be split on whether the virus is a threat and the decision to wear a mask marks where people stand. Covid vaccines are the latest phase of that divide.

Cameron Gibbons, who lives outside Kalispell, has worried about how covid could affect her 13-year-old son. He’s had coughs turn into lung infections that landed him in the emergency room for trouble breathing, so the family has played it safe during the pandemic.

“We haven’t seen family in a long time because they haven’t chosen to be careful, which is OK, as long as when we get back to normal we can all set our differences aside,” Gibbons said. “Now there’s this judgment of ‘Oh, you got the vaccine.’”

Some of Montana’s most vaccinated places overlap with tribal nations. Chelsea Kleinmeyer, the health director of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said the tribes’ members seemed to largely accept vaccines after the pandemic disproportionately sickened and killed Native Americans. But the reservation crosses four counties, including Flathead.

“We travel to those counties every single day,” Kleinmeyer said. “It goes back to: Are we really protected against this virus, these variants, if we don’t achieve herd immunity?”

States are shifting from mass clinics to bringing shots to where people are, but that strategy, too, can be unpredictable. The same day of the county’s final Thursday clinic, the local health system hosted a walk-in clinic in the middle of the Flathead Valley Community College campus in Kalispell. Most of the chairs for people to wait 15 minutes post-shot remained empty and, by early afternoon, the clinic had to send 200 doses to the county health department to avoid wastage.

Although organizers had hoped to vaccinate at least 100 people that day, Audra Saranto, a registered nurse who heads Kalispell Regional Healthcare’s vaccination team, said she counts the college event as a success — 50 people got vaccines who might otherwise not have.

The health system may host similar clinics at major job sites, like for a lumber company. A mobile team will offer shots in busy places like farmers markets, even if it means risking people not following up for a second dose.

It’s not surprising that covid vaccinations aren’t universally accepted yet in this divided county. Flathead’s board of health deadlocked over mask rules and crowd size limits amid the area’s worst covid outbreaks. Two top county health officials resigned in the past year. Thousands of people have signed dueling petitions to remove or keep one board of health member who had stirred doubt over covid-19 cases and opposed mask rules.

And the city of Kalispell is home to state Sen. Keith Regier, a Republican who repeated false claims on the Senate floor last month that covid vaccines may contain microchips to track people. Regier said in an interview he was “offering caution in how we progress with this vaccination.”

Meanwhile, Whitefish, roughly a 20-minute drive from Kalispell, has maintained a mask ordinance that has outlasted the statewide mandate. Banners downtown show local leaders asking people to mask up so people can pray together and keep schools open. Even so, the rule isn’t always followed there.

At the county’s final Thursday clinic, John Calhoun, 67, undid his pearl snap shirt to get his second shot and joked with the nurse, “I’m doing this so Joe Biden doesn’t throw me in jail.”

Calhoun said he hopes being vaccinated will help him ease tensions the next time someone tells him to wear a mask. He believes covid-19 is real but doesn’t think it’s as serious as health officials claim, even though he has diabetes, a risk factor for covid complications.

“Nothing seems to bother me all that bad,” Calhoun said. “I had a horse fall on me, broke my hip, and once stabbed myself with a hunting knife. All that caused me a bit of a problem, but other stuff just doesn’t bother me.”

He decided to get the shot after an old high school friend with a degree in biochemistry told him it was important — an opinion Calhoun trusted over those of government-paid experts and liberal politicians who he said have used the pandemic to grab more power.

Calhoun said he’s still trying to talk his wife, Lola, into getting vaccinated to play it safe: “She’s one of those ladies that you don’t talk her into much.”

Lola Calhoun, 59, said she got her shingles vaccine within the past year because she trusts the protection it offers. When it comes to covid, she said she’d rather risk the virus than be injected with vaccines that feel too new, despite decades of research underpinning their unprecedented development.

“The covid vaccine to me is experimental and we are the case studies,” she said. “Maybe a year from now, I’ll see what happens to these people who got the vaccine.”

On a recent evening, Ray Sederdahl, 63, sat on his girlfriend’s Kalispell porch while his grandkids picked dandelions. The Air Force veteran said even if he wasn’t skeptical of the vaccines, he thinks of covid as an illness that’s much like the flu.

“The VA keeps trying to get me to schedule an appointment and I just say, ‘At this time, I’ll pass,’” Sederdahl said. “A lot of the older vets I talk to, they didn’t get it either, and they’re not gonna get it.”

To Sederdahl, things feel normal enough. Businesses are open and he doesn’t have to wear a mask most places.

Erica Lengacher, an intensive care unit nurse in Kalispell who has worked covid units and vaccine clinics, said she’s sad but not surprised that vaccine rates are slowing. But, she said, the overall feeling at the county’s vaccine clinics is hopefulness — people are still showing up, even if the crowds are smaller.

Lengacher said Flathead was hit so hard this winter, she hopes some natural immunity from those already infected, along with the growing vaccination levels, will be enough to hold off further outbreaks over the next few months.

“Just given our lifestyle — single-family homes, no public transportation, a few people per square mile — we may get away with it,” Lengacher said. “But there’s a big question mark of how variants show up here. There are just a lot of big question marks.”

As of May 10, the county had 116 confirmed active cases of covid, up from 71 on April 23.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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Factors Affecting an Event Planner Salary

It's a good time to be an event planner. The event planning industry has witnessed tremendous growth and views on an ever-increasing trend. Event planners are needed in almost every industry - from corporations to convention centers to the nonprofit and technology industries. This is good for event planners and may be why this segment is experiencing higher than normal work growth.

If you are thinking of pursuing a career, you may be wondering what kind of salary you can expect as an event planner.

Or maybe you want to know how to progress as an event planner or if you should look for a pay raise. Regardless of your personal circumstances, it is always wise to have a sense of work trends in your business sector in order to tailor your career goals accordingly.

Salaries for those with an Event Planner or Meeting Planner Title vary depending on a number of factors. There is no "one size fits all". Industry, location, company size, years of experience and level of education all come into play when determining an event plan payer.

Location, Location, Location

Location is certainly a driving force behind wages in this profession. Those working in big cities will enjoy a rate higher than the average wage. Some geographical regions have higher wages than others due to demand, growth and the overall local economy. Do a little research on the growth and growth areas for this industry if you are thinking of a move.

Experience affects the salaries of event planners

In addition to education, experience has a significant weight in reducing an event planning job. And experience pays off. Those who are just starting out in the event planning activity usually start with salaries at the lower end of the rankings. This is true for many industries, not just event planning.

But salaries for event planners increase as they gain experience, so if you are new to event planning, get your foot in the door, work hard and learn. It will be paid in more ways than one.

What's in a job title?

If you have ever brushed up worksheets looking for an event position, you are likely to know many titles that may be related to Event Planner. This includes:

§  Meeting Planner

§  Event manager

§  Special event planner

§  Wedding planner

§  Party Planner

§  Event Coordinator in Marketing

§  Events Director

§  Special Event Manager

The list goes on. And over. The potential job titles in this industry seem endless. Each position and title carries a number of different responsibilities. Which, of course, translates into different wage rates. Any work planning events should be evaluated based on specific job tasks and degree of responsibility.

Skills that can drive a salary for event planning

Event planners hold a treasure trove of skills, including high-level organizational skills, great customer service and creativity. Those event planners with skills in the following areas generally have higher than average compensation:

§  Contract negotiation

§  Budget management

§  Project management

§  Event management

So if you are looking to move up the salary scale, add these important skills to your resume. In addition, earning event planning certifications through continuing education can also help you establish a higher paying position.

Career Paths for Event Planners

It is not uncommon for an event planner to start working in a small organization and then move on to a larger organization. Event planners often move into positions such as Event Managers or Meeting and Convention Planners and then, down the road, Event Manager or Senior Event Manager. Others choose to start their own event planning business or work as an independent consultant. There are many opportunities to pave your way in this exciting industry and find the role that suits you best.

Event planners are happy at work

Some studies show considerable job satisfaction among event planners.

Opportunities for promotion and salary increase are listed as the main reasons. Another is the positive balance of work and life. As for the rest? Perhaps for those who are suitable for event planning, it is the challenge of creatively creating multiple tasks and essential details, masterfully managing the inevitable turn of events and still implementing a memorable and successful event.

What types of events can be organized?

We can divide the events into three large groups: Social Events, Corporate Events and Official Events.

The social events are those that are held on the occasion of some aspect of the lives of members of a social or family group and that is important to them, like a birthday, a wedding, an anniversary ...

The Corporate Events , are organized according to the commercial or business interests of a company or brand, your goal is to transfer a message to a very specific audience and provide an excellent tool for communication and engagement.

These events in turn are divided into:

·         Internal events, aimed at the company's own employees such as presentation of results, team motivation, presentation of new products or business lines, etc.

·         External Events, aimed at external audiences such as clients or target audience of interest to the business.

Some examples of corporate events are seminars, incentives (MICE Events), fairs and exhibitions, presentations ...

The Official Acts , are those who organize the state institutions, such as the Crown, Government or the administrations of the State (as the delegations of the Government), autonomous communities, etc. on the occasion of commemorations or events of a national, autonomous, provincial, regional or local nature.

In general, event organizers are usually specialized in sectors, let's not forget that each type of event has its particular characteristics and requires, apart from general knowledge and skills, other specific knowledge, an example is the Wedding Planners, specialized in organizing weddings.

What knowledge or hard skills does an Event Organizer need?

 As we have seen, an Event Planner is a complete professional, the multiplicity of their functions requires excellent training in different disciplines, let's now see some of the knowledge they must possess:

A good training in Protocol , the Protocol allows to avoid confusion and uncomfortable unforeseen events and facilitates relationships; its perfect management will offer an impeccable image of our event, at the same time that it will help everyone feel comfortable.

We understand the Protocol as: "The set of norms or rules established by law, decree, dispositions or customs, as well as specific traditional and modern techniques that are applicable to the organization of public and private acts of a formal nature, whether of a formal nature. official or unofficial, and that they are executed with or without solemnity ”.

Knowing these rules and applying them according to the different contexts, is one of the tasks that usually gives more headaches when organizing an event. Social, official and international, business, military, ecclesiastical, sports protocol ... each sector has its own rules and particular customs, contemplating them will avoid misunderstandings and more than one dislike, Let's not forget that the Protocol is only news when it fails!

Organizing presidencies, establishing precedents, knowing the traditions and customs according to the different cultures, establishing which flags we should place and what their order is, are just some of the activities that we can frame within this field.

Training in Public Relations and Communication . Events are marketing and communication tools that allow the host / guests to come closer together, strengthen relationships and establish ties that are precisely the basis of Public Relations. Training in Public Relations is complemented by the personal skills that we will analyze later and that every good event organizer must possess.

Let's see how Rex F. Harlow defined Public Relations: “Public Relations is a clear management function that helps establish and maintain lines of mutual communication, understanding, acceptance and cooperation between an organization and its audiences; it involves the solution of issues and problems; helps management to stay informed and responsive to public opinion; defines and enhances management's responsibility for the public interest; helps management in the public interest, helps management stay alert to use changes effectively by serving as early warning systems to stay ahead of trends; and they use research and polling as well as ethical communication techniques as their main tools ”.

The events are in themselves public relations actions that facilitate communication and relationship between companies, their clients and stakeholders , help to build, promote and improve the value of brands and companies.

Marketing . The organization of an event carries with it the need to create a specific Marketing and Communication Plan.

Thanks to Marketing, a value is created for the target audience through different communication processes, processes that, in recent years, have had a marked technological character.

The use of Social Networks, applications, web pages specifically created for events, are just some of the tools that the Event Planner has and that allow direct contact with attendees before, during and after the event.

Using these tools with ease and making the most of them allows us to enhance the scope of an event, generate expectation and create links.

Organization and operation of banquets . Although the Event organizer surrounds himself with a team of expert professionals, it is essential that he have a good training in operational and banquet organization.

Knowing the different types of room setups, the most appropriate arrangements according to the event, the use of furniture or the correct number of waiters for a service depending on whether it is a cocktail or a banquet, are just some of the logistical aspects that you must control. and that will allow you to establish the quality standards required for your event.

Skills and Skills of an Event Organizer: Soft Skills

 The soft skills are a combination of social skills, communication, emotional intelligence and personality traits that help us achieve our full potential while facilitating relationships with others.

These soft skills or soft skills are the perfect complement of knowledge, a good professional is the result of the combination of both.

Like knowledge, soft skills can be acquired and molded, the Event Planner needs to train these key skills to coordinate teams, negotiate and properly handle complex situations; let's see some of them:

Organizational and planning capacity that allows to minimize unforeseen events in the event, having the power to effectively manage time and prioritize tasks by structuring work will allow the Event Planner to cover a wide range of functions efficiently.

A good capacity for adaptation and resolution to any eventuality should it arise. The changing situation that we live requires a maximum level of adaptability, we organize events taking into account multiple possibilities, multiple scenarios.

Conflict resolution that starts from the analysis and clear understanding of it, marks solutions and looks for appropriate strategies to achieve them. Other skills such as creativity, negotiation and communication techniques will play an important role here.

Negotiation. Negotiating is a true art that requires mastery of techniques and tools that will allow us to effectively manage our relationship with clients and suppliers and will facilitate the path to agreements.

 Good communication combined with assertiveness , which consists in being able to transmit a clear message and actively listen to others, express our thoughts and feelings without hurting or offending those who hear us, respecting opposing opinions or points of view.

Creativity and empathy to capture the desired objectives in the event, a complex work that starts first by detecting the client's needs, shaping the idea and finally bringing it to reality, creating emotions and experiences for the attendees, but also transmitting confidence and security. Creativity is essential if we want to create unforgettable events.

Leadership. The event organizer is the person in charge of coordinating and uniting the team, of motivating it, he surrounds himself with good professionals whom he trusts and delegates, enhancing individual skills and abilities, getting the best out of each one and working as a team .

This teamwork allows its members to go towards common goals, leaving personal interests aside, good teamwork guarantees the success of an event and a good Event Organizer always plays as a team!

 And stress resistance ! Although the ability to cope with stress depends mainly on the personal characteristics of each one, there are techniques that allow developing this ability. When organizing events we are exposed to constant stressful stimuli, deadlines, negotiations, unforeseen events ..., managing stress effectively guarantees us an adequate physical and mental state to develop other capacities such as creativity.

Courtesy:event planner in Lahore

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Building a Career in Impact Investing

What do an artificial heart, the theater, and Gabon all have in common? From where you’re sitting, probably not much. For me, however, they are key facets of my life that have led me to a career in impact investing.

Years ago when I was an undergraduate, a team and I were assigned to construct an artificial heart. This heart that we built was intended to test a new piece of medical technology, a hemofoil valve. The valve, we found, held significant promise of reducing the development of fatal blood clots. The technology was pretty straightforward to me, however the questions following the test were not. Who now gets access to this valve? Only those who can pay the price? Only those who are younger, healthier, and have a possibly longer life to live? The discussions exposed me to the world of inequality that we live in – a world in which not everyone has equal access to technology, medicine, and opportunities more broadly.

After graduation I joined the Peace Corp in search of a new adventure and greater exposure to the world. I ended up working in Gabon, where I taught math and English to middle school-aged students. I lived in a small, rural village, of about 100 people, that had no access to electricity or running water. Despite these challenges, the village was able to support and care for each other. It was clear that their survival was very much dependent on their ability to come together as a community. I was impressed by their ability to work as a group, acknowledging and being respectful of each other’s and each of their own interdependence on one another. I realized, that not just here in this small village in Gabon, but in larger, towns, cities, countries, even the whole world, we all operate, fail, and succeed as interdependent communities.

When I returned from Gabon I made the decision to focus on finance. My experiences abroad alongside my education had led me to the thinking that capital equates to power, and is a key determinant of capability for individuals, businesses, and communities. Although now I know that finance is only one piece of the pie of life, I still maintain the important role that it plays.

For several years my career followed this track. I got my MBA from Columbia University and worked at a number of large financial institutions, including Neuberger Berman and Morgan Stanley. Over time, though, I felt that my job was not addressing the issues and the values that were important to me – the ones that I learned from my time in Gabon, and building that artificial heart. I didn’t know what I wanted to do next, but I knew I wanted to do something else. So I took a risk and quit my job.

At the time, I was living in New York City, and the opportunities were endless. A local theater that I was a fan of, The Public Theater, had an opening for a volunteer, and I jumped on it. The Public was special to me because of the values it held. Its founder, Joseph Papp, believed that art should be accessible to everyone, regardless of wealth – and this message very much resonated with me and my (artificial) heart.

Like many small, creative institutions, The Public found itself in some financial peril. It was upsetting to see an institution that was so impactful on the community struggle as much as it did. I didn’t understand how such an asset was being undervalued.

I did some research, and found an organization that valued the arts from a financial perspective, called Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF). Back then, they were one of the few community development financial institutions (CDFIs) that viewed the arts as investable and valuable commodities in communities. I soon joined the NFF team and dived into the world of community investing.

At the time, the term “impact investing” had yet to be coined. CDFIs however, as established institutions, had been working to provide credit and financial services to underserved markets and communities since the early 1990s. I found that the work that NFF was doing, and other CDFIs, was incredibly valuable – in one way, because they were driving capital to much needed community services, but in another way, because they were also receiving interest from the loans they were making.

Elsewhere in the world, other investors and financial institutions were recognizing this type of double-bottom line opportunity. An opportunity that soon merited its own name – impact investing – and its own space in the investing world.

Through my work at NFF, I came across Calvert Foundation, who had invested in NFF and several other CDFIs. Calvert Foundation, through the Community Investment Note, provided investors the opportunity to actually invest in CDFIs, and benefit from both the financial and social returns that they generated.

The opportunity to work with the investors that were financing CDFI work, and to help grow the amount of investment that was going into CDFI work, was very appealing to me. I later joined Calvert Foundation, only to build my way up to become CEO.

Today I spend a lot of my time explaining what impact investing is and why it is so important. When I meet with a prospective investor, I think back to the artificial heart, and explain how impact investing provides increased opportunities to those who are often underserved. When I’m speaking at an event with large financial institutions, I think about the village in Gabon, and remind the audience that it is only by working together that we can leverage the impact of our investments. When I’m making decisions on the types of organizations we invest in, I think of The Public Theater, and tell my team that it is our mission to finance organizations that are actively making a positive difference in their communities.

Other people, in their own ways, have come to the similar conclusions that I have made from my collected experiences. I have the benefit of working with these people every day, on the Calvert Foundation team, and with the thousands of people who have chosen to invest with us. The Community Investment Note is now more accessible than ever before, available online or through brokerage firms, starting from $20. Anyone who cares about equality, community, opportunity, and finance as a force for good, can make a difference with their investments.

The capital raised through the Note goes to support community organizations, like The Public Theater, and many others sectors such as health, education, small business, affordable housing, sustainable agriculture, and climate change solutions. In my time at Calvert Foundation, we’ve also launched new initiatives that focus our investments on important issues, such as support services for the aging and gender equality.

In the past few years it has been particularly exciting to see our women’s empowerment initiative, Women Investing in Women (WIN-WIN), grow in popularity. This issue that has always been important to me, has also become incredibly important to investors. Now it is proven that investing in women and girls can generate sustainable returns, in the economy and in society. Working in impact investing has enabled me to sit at the forefront of this shift in perspective, and help drive it forward. Today we have raised over $30 million in investments targeted at WIN-WIN, and we continue to move that capital to organizations empowering women and girls around the world.

It has been quite the journey so far, and I know it is far from over. The lessons I’ve learned have taught me that as you grow and establish values in life, they do not have to be sacrificed in the work that you do or in the ways you spend and allocate your money. That is precisely what impact investing is all about, and it is something that we can all be a part of.

[softghor]

Graphic Design and Marketing: 6 Things Designers Wish They Knew Before Starting Out

High-quality design benefits just about any type of organization, which is why graphic designers can find work in a variety of different industries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20 percent of graphic designers are self-employed. But among the designers seeking to land a gig at a professional organization, most work either in some sector of specialized design services or in marketing and advertising.“A lot of graphic designers will inevitably go into marketing and advertising because there’s a big demand for that skill set in those industries,” explains Goncalo Costa, co-founder and CEO of Costa Rank. It’s unsurprising if you consider the fact that most all forms of marketing—traditional, digital or otherwise—rely to some extent on quality, eye-catching design.

If you’re an up-and-coming designer who’s seeking a certain level of job security and stability, you may consider looking into openings at marketing and advertising agencies. But before you do, it’s always smart to learn a bit about what you’ll be getting yourself into. That’s why we canvassed a handful of graphic design and marketing professionals to learn what they wish they knew about the industry before launching their careers. Take a look at what they had to say.

6 Things new designers should know about graphic design and marketing

1. Know the difference between designing for a brand and designing for yourself

One of the most difficult obstacles new designers face is parsing the difference between personal design preferences and the design needs of clients.“Designing for yourself is important—especially after college,” admits Joe Tucker, creative director at Solodev and DigitalUS. “But never get so into designing for yourself that you neglect the details of your client’s needs and goals. Know when to compromise for the sake of the team and realize that you’ll still be producing excellent work even if it looks different than you originally envisioned.”Our experts are united on this factor of working as a graphic designer in marketing or advertising. “Be open to feedback about your designs, and do not take negative comments personally,” encourages Karolyn Masters, national creative director at iPartnerMedia. “It’s not about you; it’s about your client. Make sure you are wearing the hat with the client’s needs in mind, and do not get stuck in your own power struggle of what you personally like best.” As with most industries, once you pay your dues, you will likely build up enough of a rapport with your clients that they’ll begin trusting you with a bit more creative freedom.

2. Learn how to address a client with questionable taste

“It doesn’t matter if you’re self-taught or college educated—sooner or later you’ll be asked for a design or a revision that goes against everything you know about good design,” says Joe Goldstein, search engine optimization (SEO) director and operations manager for Contractor Calls. He goes on to explain that while your instinct may be to push back, you need to be careful to not offend those who are paying you by potentially insulting their taste.Goldstein offers a few potential approaches you can take when you find yourself in this situation:Try showing the client where that design will break down. “If you’re designing a logo for a dentist and their idea is too clichéd to stand out, show them. If you know that it won’t work in black and white or when you scale it down, show them. If you think it’s all aesthetics and lacks a message, show them,” he emphasizes.Pinpoint the financial implications of those design decisions and base your arguments on that, translating it into a language the client can understand. “Your client may think their parallax-heavy, slider-heavy website looks amazing, but educate them about how that will impact load speed and what that could do to their SEO. They may think that auto-playing music on their home page adds a ‘wow’ factor, but remind them that if their target market is corporate, then the only ones to hear it will be embarrassed from suddenly flooding their office with music,” he says.Lastly, a more succinct approach. “When all else fails, just shut up and push the pixels. Some clients just want to pay you to see their visions come to life,” he states, adding that you can view such projects as a challenge worth stepping up to.

3. Find ways to keep your creative side well-watered

Graphic designers are often creative by nature, which is why it may surprise some to learn they may not always be able to view their jobs as the creative outlet they crave. “Designing for marketing and advertising can be extremely fast-paced, fun and creative, but not every company offers that experience,” explains marketing and design consultant, Jackie Kossoff. “Each company has standards of design that need to be followed. These standards can be rigorous and provide little room for creativity.”She suggests seeking out other outlets to bring your creative vision to life, adding that nearly every designer she knows takes on side projects of some sort. From designing for creative startups or local nonprofits to selling your original designs online through venues like Etsy, be sure to find that outlet so your creativity doesn’t feel stifled.

4. Understand the target audience and end goal of a project before you begin

While your ultimate purpose in a given project will be to create an effective design, when you’re working in an advertising or marketing environment, there are a few other factors to consider before creating your plan of attack. “Ask as many questions as you can before you begin. Understanding what the client wants is half the battle,” says Damien Cunningham, senior designer and product developer at Find Me a Gift. “As you gain a greater understanding of the client’s needs, you should feel confident enough to offer suggestions and tips for how you feel the material can be improved and how your input can benefit the finished design.”A common rule of thumb in marketing is to consider the goals—sometimes called Key Performance Indicators (KPI)—of a project before creating any sort of plan for execution. This can include identifying who you’re trying to reach, at what capacity you hope to reach them and, ultimately, what specific action you hope that target audience will take in the end.

5. You’ll benefit from learning as much about digital marketing as possible

In that same vein, if you’re looking to land a job as a graphic designer in marketing, you’ll want to be as well-versed in marketing best practices as possible. This will not only impress hiring managers as you interview, but also make your job easier in the long-run if you have a basic understanding of some of the marketing principles discussed on the job.Costa suggests reading up on digital marketing since much of a graphic designer’s efforts will go toward this vertical. “Designers need to know about user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), landing pages, marketing funnels, content pieces for different distribution platforms and so much more,” he says, adding that even learning the absolute basics of elements like development and copywriting can help designers know how their designs will work in tandem with those departments.“If you want to work as a designer for an advertising or marketing agency, just knowing design isn’t going to help you,” Costa explains. “You need to understand what the industry needs, how it works and how to apply your skills in the correct places.”

6. Know it’s about more than just artistic ability

“Many recent graduates and others getting into graphic design tend to ignore what the market needs. Some designers are way too artistic, which [can be] what makes them very good at what they do, but they lack the pragmatic side that is ultimately going to help them get a job that they enjoy,” Costa says.While graphic designers are relied upon for their artistic abilities, it’s important to note that in an industry like marketing, you’ll need more than just your creative flair to be successful. “Ultimately, the best artists don’t always make the best graphic designers,” Goldstein iterates. “Making a design look good isn’t the real challenge—pleasing multiple stakeholders, reconciling conflicting design goals and navigating an ever-changing landscape of restraints are. Learn to do it well, and you’ll learn to love the ride.”

Could you launch your graphic design career in marketing?

If you’re curious about exploring the ample graphic design opportunities in the worlds of marketing and advertising, take the advice from our experts to heart before you take the leap—you will likely feel better prepared for what awaits and could even appear more qualified to hiring managers as you venture into the interview phase of your job search.Another aspect to consider as you move forward is perusing the benefits of some formal education in graphic design. While a degree may not be a job requirement for all the openings you come across, it will certainly send the message to potential employers that you know what you’re doing when it comes to graphic design.

[saltygardenerlove]

The Brief: Spotlight on stewardship, circular plastic investments, donor-advised COVID investing, social housing in the U.K., fintech in Nigeria

‘Stewardship’ under scrutiny as the shareholder season gets started. Even before the COVID crisis, this year’s annual general meeting season was shaping up as pivotal. The springtime ritual in which corporate directors meet shareholders face-to-face was to be the first since 181 CEOs signed a Business Roundtable pledge to elevate stakeholders – employees, customers, supplies and communities – along with shareholders. BlackRock warned corporations that the $7 trillion asset manager might vote against management at companies that failed to make progress on climate risk and sustainability. Both BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank, signed the Climate Action 100+ pledge to pressure the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. The face-to-face part won’t happen, of course, but COVID-19 has only raised the stakes for corporations facing hundreds of shareholder resolutions on climate, social and governance action. Says As You Sow’s Andrew Behar, “This year can be an inflection point.”

The most engaged investors are now scrutinizing how companies have protected and treated employees through the crisis and whether they have reevaluated share buybacks after many companies were caught without adequate cash reserves. More than 60 resolutions call on companies to explain how their strategies align with the Paris climate accord. Another 40 resolutions, prepared well before the pandemic, seek fair pay and equitable working conditions. BlackRock and Goldman Sachs face shareholder proposals asking for plans to implement the stakeholder-centric pledge itself. BlackRock is under particular scrutiny from large institutional investors, for whom ‘stewardship’ has become an important way to mitigate negative externalities of corporate behavior. Longtime shareholder advocates will believe in the changes when they see them. The COVID crisis “is really a wild card,” says Proxy Impact’s Michael Passoff. “We may see some interesting responses from companies.”

Dealflow: Follow the Money

Circulate Capital invests in plastic recyclers in India and Indonesia. Singapore-based Circulate Capital spun off from Closed Loop Partners nearly two years ago to tackle plastic waste in Asia. Five countries are responsible for half of the plastic waste that ends up in oceans worldwide, and Circulate founder Rob Kaplan wanted to seize the “opportunity to build new value chains out of waste streams.” With a $15 million anchor investment from PepsiCo Foundation, the firm raised $106 million from Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Unilever, Coca-Cola Company, Chevron Phillips and others. Its first investments commit $6 million to Mumbai-based Lucro Plastecycle, which repurposes hard-to-recycle plastic scraps into new products like vehicle upholstery and steering-wheel covers; and Jakarta-based Tridi Oasis, a female-led company that recycles common PET plastic into “flakes” for textiles or new packaging materials.

· COVID considerations. To back up its equity investments, Circulate is providing short-term lines of credit to help portfolio companies weather the coronavirus business disruption. “If the current health and economic crisis has taught us anything, it’s that we need to future proof our local supply chains and economies,” Kaplan said. “The resilience of critical infrastructure like waste and recycling goes hand-in-hand with protecting the health and livelihoods of our communities.” The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and USAID provided partial guarantees.

ImpactAssets sets COVID Response Fund to channel donor-advised funds to unmet needs. The fund will leverage the nonprofit investment manager’s network of investors to move flexible capital to companies and individuals hardest hit by the pandemic. A key strategy will be channeling charitable dollars to community banks and community development financial institutions, or CDFIs. Through the COVID Response Fund, “our family office is supporting mission-driven companies rapidly delivering products and services related to the crisis, as well as stabilizing affected social enterprises and small businesses,” says Blue Haven Initiative’s Liesel Pritzker Simmons, an ImpactAssets board member.

· Impact step up. ImpactAssets says it has more than $1 billion in investment opportunities in its pipeline. “We have been thrilled to see impact investors leaning in at record levels to support critical needs in this moment of crisis,” said ImpactAssets’ Margret Trilli. Trilli says the nonprofit saw 3.5 times the normal volume in grants in the first quarter, and double the number of investments.

Cheyne Capital raises £150 million to build and preserve U.K. social housing. The London-based asset management firm will develop and acquire affordable housing properties, then lease the properties to non-profit housing associations and local government ‘councils.’ The open-ended Cheyne Impact Real Estate Trust is Cheyne Capital’s second affordable housing fund.

Okra raises $1 million to improve Nigeria’s fintech infrastructure. For all of Africa’s fintech buzz and controversy, there are still significant obstacles to widespread access to financial services. Lagosbased Okra raised pre-seed funding from early stage fintech venture fund TLcom Capital to integrate mainstream banks with digital payment apps.

FINCA Impact Finance secures $15 million loan facility from Calvert Impact Capital. The network of 20 microfinance institutions will use the revolving facility to lend to subsidiaries supporting microentrepreneurs and small businesses across the world. It will also use a portion of the funds for working capital and long-term investments, including network-wide digitization.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Community Investment Management hires Bernhard Eikenberg, ex- of Bamboo Capital, as a partner; Jeff Hilton, ex- of Opportunity Fund, as managing director of investments and finance; and Louis Mrachek, ex- of Aura Financial, as chief credit officer… New Forests is hiring a senior analyst of investments in San Francisco… Bamboo Capital reports that over the past year, its portfolio companies impacted an additional 32 million lives in developing markets, supported an additional 5,000 jobs (including 1,900 jobs for women) and displaced an additional 680,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

[bertrhert]

The Brief: Spotlight on stewardship, circular plastic investments, donor-advised COVID investing, social housing in the U.K., fintech in Nigeria

‘Stewardship’ under scrutiny as the shareholder season gets started. Even before the COVID crisis, this year’s annual general meeting season was shaping up as pivotal. The springtime ritual in which corporate directors meet shareholders face-to-face was to be the first since 181 CEOs signed a Business Roundtable pledge to elevate stakeholders – employees, customers, supplies and communities – along with shareholders. BlackRock warned corporations that the $7 trillion asset manager might vote against management at companies that failed to make progress on climate risk and sustainability. Both BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank, signed the Climate Action 100+ pledge to pressure the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. The face-to-face part won’t happen, of course, but COVID-19 has only raised the stakes for corporations facing hundreds of shareholder resolutions on climate, social and governance action. Says As You Sow’s Andrew Behar, “This year can be an inflection point.”

The most engaged investors are now scrutinizing how companies have protected and treated employees through the crisis and whether they have reevaluated share buybacks after many companies were caught without adequate cash reserves. More than 60 resolutions call on companies to explain how their strategies align with the Paris climate accord. Another 40 resolutions, prepared well before the pandemic, seek fair pay and equitable working conditions. BlackRock and Goldman Sachs face shareholder proposals asking for plans to implement the stakeholder-centric pledge itself. BlackRock is under particular scrutiny from large institutional investors, for whom ‘stewardship’ has become an important way to mitigate negative externalities of corporate behavior. Longtime shareholder advocates will believe in the changes when they see them. The COVID crisis “is really a wild card,” says Proxy Impact’s Michael Passoff. “We may see some interesting responses from companies.”

Dealflow: Follow the Money

Circulate Capital invests in plastic recyclers in India and Indonesia. Singapore-based Circulate Capital spun off from Closed Loop Partners nearly two years ago to tackle plastic waste in Asia. Five countries are responsible for half of the plastic waste that ends up in oceans worldwide, and Circulate founder Rob Kaplan wanted to seize the “opportunity to build new value chains out of waste streams.” With a $15 million anchor investment from PepsiCo Foundation, the firm raised $106 million from Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Unilever, Coca-Cola Company, Chevron Phillips and others. Its first investments commit $6 million to Mumbai-based Lucro Plastecycle, which repurposes hard-to-recycle plastic scraps into new products like vehicle upholstery and steering-wheel covers; and Jakarta-based Tridi Oasis, a female-led company that recycles common PET plastic into “flakes” for textiles or new packaging materials.

· COVID considerations. To back up its equity investments, Circulate is providing short-term lines of credit to help portfolio companies weather the coronavirus business disruption. “If the current health and economic crisis has taught us anything, it’s that we need to future proof our local supply chains and economies,” Kaplan said. “The resilience of critical infrastructure like waste and recycling goes hand-in-hand with protecting the health and livelihoods of our communities.” The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and USAID provided partial guarantees.

ImpactAssets sets COVID Response Fund to channel donor-advised funds to unmet needs. The fund will leverage the nonprofit investment manager’s network of investors to move flexible capital to companies and individuals hardest hit by the pandemic. A key strategy will be channeling charitable dollars to community banks and community development financial institutions, or CDFIs. Through the COVID Response Fund, “our family office is supporting mission-driven companies rapidly delivering products and services related to the crisis, as well as stabilizing affected social enterprises and small businesses,” says Blue Haven Initiative’s Liesel Pritzker Simmons, an ImpactAssets board member.

· Impact step up. ImpactAssets says it has more than $1 billion in investment opportunities in its pipeline. “We have been thrilled to see impact investors leaning in at record levels to support critical needs in this moment of crisis,” said ImpactAssets’ Margret Trilli. Trilli says the nonprofit saw 3.5 times the normal volume in grants in the first quarter, and double the number of investments.

Cheyne Capital raises £150 million to build and preserve U.K. social housing. The London-based asset management firm will develop and acquire affordable housing properties, then lease the properties to non-profit housing associations and local government ‘councils.’ The open-ended Cheyne Impact Real Estate Trust is Cheyne Capital’s second affordable housing fund.

Okra raises $1 million to improve Nigeria’s fintech infrastructure. For all of Africa’s fintech buzz and controversy, there are still significant obstacles to widespread access to financial services. Lagosbased Okra raised pre-seed funding from early stage fintech venture fund TLcom Capital to integrate mainstream banks with digital payment apps.

FINCA Impact Finance secures $15 million loan facility from Calvert Impact Capital. The network of 20 microfinance institutions will use the revolving facility to lend to subsidiaries supporting microentrepreneurs and small businesses across the world. It will also use a portion of the funds for working capital and long-term investments, including network-wide digitization.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Community Investment Management hires Bernhard Eikenberg, ex- of Bamboo Capital, as a partner; Jeff Hilton, ex- of Opportunity Fund, as managing director of investments and finance; and Louis Mrachek, ex- of Aura Financial, as chief credit officer… New Forests is hiring a senior analyst of investments in San Francisco… Bamboo Capital reports that over the past year, its portfolio companies impacted an additional 32 million lives in developing markets, supported an additional 5,000 jobs (including 1,900 jobs for women) and displaced an additional 680,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

[craigmyersfinance]

The Brief: Spotlight on stewardship, circular plastic investments, donor-advised COVID investing, social housing in the U.K., fintech in Nigeria

‘Stewardship’ under scrutiny as the shareholder season gets started. Even before the COVID crisis, this year’s annual general meeting season was shaping up as pivotal. The springtime ritual in which corporate directors meet shareholders face-to-face was to be the first since 181 CEOs signed a Business Roundtable pledge to elevate stakeholders – employees, customers, supplies and communities – along with shareholders. BlackRock warned corporations that the $7 trillion asset manager might vote against management at companies that failed to make progress on climate risk and sustainability. Both BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank, signed the Climate Action 100+ pledge to pressure the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. The face-to-face part won’t happen, of course, but COVID-19 has only raised the stakes for corporations facing hundreds of shareholder resolutions on climate, social and governance action. Says As You Sow’s Andrew Behar, “This year can be an inflection point.”

The most engaged investors are now scrutinizing how companies have protected and treated employees through the crisis and whether they have reevaluated share buybacks after many companies were caught without adequate cash reserves. More than 60 resolutions call on companies to explain how their strategies align with the Paris climate accord. Another 40 resolutions, prepared well before the pandemic, seek fair pay and equitable working conditions. BlackRock and Goldman Sachs face shareholder proposals asking for plans to implement the stakeholder-centric pledge itself. BlackRock is under particular scrutiny from large institutional investors, for whom ‘stewardship’ has become an important way to mitigate negative externalities of corporate behavior. Longtime shareholder advocates will believe in the changes when they see them. The COVID crisis “is really a wild card,” says Proxy Impact’s Michael Passoff. “We may see some interesting responses from companies.”

Dealflow: Follow the Money

Circulate Capital invests in plastic recyclers in India and Indonesia. Singapore-based Circulate Capital spun off from Closed Loop Partners nearly two years ago to tackle plastic waste in Asia. Five countries are responsible for half of the plastic waste that ends up in oceans worldwide, and Circulate founder Rob Kaplan wanted to seize the “opportunity to build new value chains out of waste streams.” With a $15 million anchor investment from PepsiCo Foundation, the firm raised $106 million from Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Unilever, Coca-Cola Company, Chevron Phillips and others. Its first investments commit $6 million to Mumbai-based Lucro Plastecycle, which repurposes hard-to-recycle plastic scraps into new products like vehicle upholstery and steering-wheel covers; and Jakarta-based Tridi Oasis, a female-led company that recycles common PET plastic into “flakes” for textiles or new packaging materials.

· COVID considerations. To back up its equity investments, Circulate is providing short-term lines of credit to help portfolio companies weather the coronavirus business disruption. “If the current health and economic crisis has taught us anything, it’s that we need to future proof our local supply chains and economies,” Kaplan said. “The resilience of critical infrastructure like waste and recycling goes hand-in-hand with protecting the health and livelihoods of our communities.” The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and USAID provided partial guarantees.

ImpactAssets sets COVID Response Fund to channel donor-advised funds to unmet needs. The fund will leverage the nonprofit investment manager’s network of investors to move flexible capital to companies and individuals hardest hit by the pandemic. A key strategy will be channeling charitable dollars to community banks and community development financial institutions, or CDFIs. Through the COVID Response Fund, “our family office is supporting mission-driven companies rapidly delivering products and services related to the crisis, as well as stabilizing affected social enterprises and small businesses,” says Blue Haven Initiative’s Liesel Pritzker Simmons, an ImpactAssets board member.

· Impact step up. ImpactAssets says it has more than $1 billion in investment opportunities in its pipeline. “We have been thrilled to see impact investors leaning in at record levels to support critical needs in this moment of crisis,” said ImpactAssets’ Margret Trilli. Trilli says the nonprofit saw 3.5 times the normal volume in grants in the first quarter, and double the number of investments.

Cheyne Capital raises £150 million to build and preserve U.K. social housing. The London-based asset management firm will develop and acquire affordable housing properties, then lease the properties to non-profit housing associations and local government ‘councils.’ The open-ended Cheyne Impact Real Estate Trust is Cheyne Capital’s second affordable housing fund.

Okra raises $1 million to improve Nigeria’s fintech infrastructure. For all of Africa’s fintech buzz and controversy, there are still significant obstacles to widespread access to financial services. Lagosbased Okra raised pre-seed funding from early stage fintech venture fund TLcom Capital to integrate mainstream banks with digital payment apps.

FINCA Impact Finance secures $15 million loan facility from Calvert Impact Capital. The network of 20 microfinance institutions will use the revolving facility to lend to subsidiaries supporting microentrepreneurs and small businesses across the world. It will also use a portion of the funds for working capital and long-term investments, including network-wide digitization.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Community Investment Management hires Bernhard Eikenberg, ex- of Bamboo Capital, as a partner; Jeff Hilton, ex- of Opportunity Fund, as managing director of investments and finance; and Louis Mrachek, ex- of Aura Financial, as chief credit officer… New Forests is hiring a senior analyst of investments in San Francisco… Bamboo Capital reports that over the past year, its portfolio companies impacted an additional 32 million lives in developing markets, supported an additional 5,000 jobs (including 1,900 jobs for women) and displaced an additional 680,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

[dreamilykawaiibasement]

The Brief: Spotlight on stewardship, circular plastic investments, donor-advised COVID investing, social housing in the U.K., fintech in Nigeria

‘Stewardship’ under scrutiny as the shareholder season gets started. Even before the COVID crisis, this year’s annual general meeting season was shaping up as pivotal. The springtime ritual in which corporate directors meet shareholders face-to-face was to be the first since 181 CEOs signed a Business Roundtable pledge to elevate stakeholders – employees, customers, supplies and communities – along with shareholders. BlackRock warned corporations that the $7 trillion asset manager might vote against management at companies that failed to make progress on climate risk and sustainability. Both BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank, signed the Climate Action 100+ pledge to pressure the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. The face-to-face part won’t happen, of course, but COVID-19 has only raised the stakes for corporations facing hundreds of shareholder resolutions on climate, social and governance action. Says As You Sow’s Andrew Behar, “This year can be an inflection point.”

The most engaged investors are now scrutinizing how companies have protected and treated employees through the crisis and whether they have reevaluated share buybacks after many companies were caught without adequate cash reserves. More than 60 resolutions call on companies to explain how their strategies align with the Paris climate accord. Another 40 resolutions, prepared well before the pandemic, seek fair pay and equitable working conditions. BlackRock and Goldman Sachs face shareholder proposals asking for plans to implement the stakeholder-centric pledge itself. BlackRock is under particular scrutiny from large institutional investors, for whom ‘stewardship’ has become an important way to mitigate negative externalities of corporate behavior. Longtime shareholder advocates will believe in the changes when they see them. The COVID crisis “is really a wild card,” says Proxy Impact’s Michael Passoff. “We may see some interesting responses from companies.”

Dealflow: Follow the Money

Circulate Capital invests in plastic recyclers in India and Indonesia. Singapore-based Circulate Capital spun off from Closed Loop Partners nearly two years ago to tackle plastic waste in Asia. Five countries are responsible for half of the plastic waste that ends up in oceans worldwide, and Circulate founder Rob Kaplan wanted to seize the “opportunity to build new value chains out of waste streams.” With a $15 million anchor investment from PepsiCo Foundation, the firm raised $106 million from Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Unilever, Coca-Cola Company, Chevron Phillips and others. Its first investments commit $6 million to Mumbai-based Lucro Plastecycle, which repurposes hard-to-recycle plastic scraps into new products like vehicle upholstery and steering-wheel covers; and Jakarta-based Tridi Oasis, a female-led company that recycles common PET plastic into “flakes” for textiles or new packaging materials.

· COVID considerations. To back up its equity investments, Circulate is providing short-term lines of credit to help portfolio companies weather the coronavirus business disruption. “If the current health and economic crisis has taught us anything, it’s that we need to future proof our local supply chains and economies,” Kaplan said. “The resilience of critical infrastructure like waste and recycling goes hand-in-hand with protecting the health and livelihoods of our communities.” The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and USAID provided partial guarantees.

ImpactAssets sets COVID Response Fund to channel donor-advised funds to unmet needs. The fund will leverage the nonprofit investment manager’s network of investors to move flexible capital to companies and individuals hardest hit by the pandemic. A key strategy will be channeling charitable dollars to community banks and community development financial institutions, or CDFIs. Through the COVID Response Fund, “our family office is supporting mission-driven companies rapidly delivering products and services related to the crisis, as well as stabilizing affected social enterprises and small businesses,” says Blue Haven Initiative’s Liesel Pritzker Simmons, an ImpactAssets board member.

· Impact step up. ImpactAssets says it has more than $1 billion in investment opportunities in its pipeline. “We have been thrilled to see impact investors leaning in at record levels to support critical needs in this moment of crisis,” said ImpactAssets’ Margret Trilli. Trilli says the nonprofit saw 3.5 times the normal volume in grants in the first quarter, and double the number of investments.

Cheyne Capital raises £150 million to build and preserve U.K. social housing. The London-based asset management firm will develop and acquire affordable housing properties, then lease the properties to non-profit housing associations and local government ‘councils.’ The open-ended Cheyne Impact Real Estate Trust is Cheyne Capital’s second affordable housing fund.

Okra raises $1 million to improve Nigeria’s fintech infrastructure. For all of Africa’s fintech buzz and controversy, there are still significant obstacles to widespread access to financial services. Lagosbased Okra raised pre-seed funding from early stage fintech venture fund TLcom Capital to integrate mainstream banks with digital payment apps.

FINCA Impact Finance secures $15 million loan facility from Calvert Impact Capital. The network of 20 microfinance institutions will use the revolving facility to lend to subsidiaries supporting microentrepreneurs and small businesses across the world. It will also use a portion of the funds for working capital and long-term investments, including network-wide digitization.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Community Investment Management hires Bernhard Eikenberg, ex- of Bamboo Capital, as a partner; Jeff Hilton, ex- of Opportunity Fund, as managing director of investments and finance; and Louis Mrachek, ex- of Aura Financial, as chief credit officer… New Forests is hiring a senior analyst of investments in San Francisco… Bamboo Capital reports that over the past year, its portfolio companies impacted an additional 32 million lives in developing markets, supported an additional 5,000 jobs (including 1,900 jobs for women) and displaced an additional 680,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.